And again about love ... And if about love, then it is obligatory about Ivan Alekseevich Bunin, because there is no equal to him in literature in his ability so deeply, precisely,
and at the same time, it is easy and easy to convey an endless palette of colors and shades of life, love and human destinies, and what is most surprising is all on two or three pages. In his stories, time is inversely proportional to the arising completeness of feelings and emotions. Here you read his story “Easy Breathing” (the analysis of the work follows), and it takes about five to ten minutes to do this, but at the same time you manage to immerse yourself in life, and even the soul of the main characters, and live with them for several decades, and sometimes all my life. Isn't that a miracle?
Story I.A. Bunina “Easy breathing”: analysis and summary
From the first lines, the author acquaints the reader with the main character of the story - Olya Meshcherskaya. But what is this acquaintance? An analysis of the story “Easy Breath” draws attention to the scene - a cemetery, a fresh clay embankment on a grave and a heavy smooth oak cross. Time is the cold, gray days of April, still bare trees, the icy wind. A medallion is inserted into the cross itself, and in the medallion is a portrait of a young girl, a schoolgirl, with happy, “amazingly lively eyes.” As you can see, the narrative is built on contrasts, hence the feelings are twofold: life and death - spring, April, but still bare trees; a strong gravestone cross with a portrait of a young girl, in the prime of her awakening femininity. One involuntarily wonders what this earthly life is, and what death is, and one is amazed at how close the atoms of life and death are to each other, and with them beauty and ugliness, simplicity and craftiness, stunning success and tragedy ...
main character
The principle of contrast is used both in the image of Olechka Meshcherskaya herself, and in the description of her short but brilliant life. Girl, she did not pay attention to herself. The only thing that could be said was that she was one of many sweet, rich and absolutely happy girls who, by virtue of their age, were playful and careless. However, she soon began to develop rapidly and grow prettier, and in her incomplete fifteen years was considered a real beauty. She was not afraid or embarrassed, and at the same time, her ink stains on her fingers or disheveled hair looked much more natural, neat and elegant than the deliberate neatness or thoroughness of her friend's hair style. No one so gracefully danced at balls as she. No one was as skilful as her. No one had as many fans as Olya Meshcherskaya ... The analysis of the story “Easy breathing” does not end there.
Last winter
As they said in the gymnasium, "Olya Meshcherskaya’s last winter completely went crazy with fun." She flaunts herself everywhere: she combes defiantly, wears expensive combs, and ruins her parents in “twenty rubles” shoes. She openly and simply declares to the headmistress that she has long been no longer a girl, but a woman ... Flirts with the schoolboy Shenshin, promises him to be faithful and loving, and at the same time so inconstant and capricious in dealing with him, once leading him to attempt suicide. She, in fact, lures and seduces Alexei Mikhailovich Malyutin, an adult respectable man of fifty-six years, and then, realizing his disadvantage, as an excuse for his dissolute behavior, arouses a sense of disgust for him. Further - more ... Olya enters into a relationship with a Cossack officer, ugly, plebeian, who had nothing to do with the society in which she turned, and promises him to marry him. And at the station, seeing him off to Novocherkassk, he says that there can be no love between them, and all these conversations are just a mockery and a mockery of him. As evidence of her own words, she lets him read that page of the diary, which talked about her first connection with Malyutin. Without carrying insults, the officer shoots her right here on the platform ... The question arises: why, why does she need all this? What corners of the human soul is trying to open for us the work "Easy Breath" (Bunin)? Analysis of the sequence of actions of the main character will allow the reader to answer these and other questions.
Fluttering moth
And here the image of a fluttering moth involuntarily suggests itself, frivolous, reckless, but possessing an incredible thirst for life, a desire to find some kind of its own, special, fascinating and beautiful fate worthy only of the elite. But life is subject to other laws and rules, for the violation of which you have to pay. Therefore, Olga Meshcherskaya, like a moth, courageously, not feeling fear, and at the same time, easily and naturally, ignoring the feelings of others, flies to the fire, to the light of life, to meet new sensations, to burn to the ground: “So does the pen, gliding along smooth the outline of the notebook, not knowing about the fate of your line, where wisdom, heresy mixed up ... ”(Brodsky)
Contradictions
Indeed, everything was mixed up in Ola Meshcherskaya. “Easy breathing”, analysis of the story, allows you to highlight such a stylistic device in the work as antithesis - a sharp contrast between concepts, images, conditions. She is beautiful and immoral at the same time. She can not be called stupid, she was capable, but at the same time superficial and thoughtless. There was no cruelty in her, "for some reason the elementary classes did not like anyone like her." Her merciless attitude to the feelings of other people was not meaningful. She, like a raging element, demolished everything in her path, but not because she wanted to destroy and suppress, but only because she could not otherwise: "... how to combine with this clean look that terrible that is now connected with the name of Olya Meshcherskaya?" Both beauty and this fury were its essence, and she was not afraid to show both of them in full. Therefore, she was so loved, admired, drawn to, and therefore her life was so vibrant, but fleeting. It could not be otherwise, as the story “Easy breathing” proves to us (Bunin). Analysis of the work gives a deeper understanding of the life of the main character.
Cool lady
The antithetical composition (antithesis) is observed both in the description of the very image of the classy lady Olechka Meshcherskaya, and in the indirect, but so predictable comparison of her with her ward gymnasium. For the first time I. Bunin ("Easy Breath") introduces the reader to a new character - the head of the gymnasium, in the scene of a conversation between her and mademoiselle Meshcherskaya regarding the latter's defiant behavior. And what do we see? Two absolute opposites - a youthful, but gray-haired madame with even parting in neatly corrugated hair and a light, graceful Olya with a beautifully styled, even if not for years, hairstyle with an expensive comb. One behaves simply, clearly and lively, not afraid of anything and boldly answering reproaches, despite such a young age and unequal position. Another - does not take his eyes off endless knitting and secretly begins to get annoyed.
After the tragedy
We remind you that we are talking about the story “Easy breathing”. An analysis of the work follows. The second and last time the reader encounters the image of a classy lady after the death of Olya, in the cemetery. And again, before us is a sharp, but vivid clarity of the antithesis. A “middle-aged girl” in black like gloves and mourning walks every Sunday to Olya’s grave, for hours without taking her eyes off the oak cross. She devoted her life to some “ethereal” feat. At first, she cared about the fate of her brother, Alexei Mikhailovich Malyutin, that very remarkable ensign who had seduced a beautiful schoolgirl. After his death, she devoted herself to work, merging entirely with the image of an “ideological toiler”. Now Olya Meshcherskaya is the main theme of all her thoughts and feelings, one might say, a new dream, a new meaning in life. However, can her life be called life? Yes and no. On the one hand, everything that is in the world is necessary and has the right to be, despite the seeming worthlessness and futility to us. And on the other hand - in comparison with the magnificence, brilliance and audacity of the colors of Olya's short life, it is rather a “slow death”. But, as they say, the truth is somewhere in between, since the colorful picture of the young girl’s life path is also an illusion, behind which there is a void.
Conversation
The story "Easy breathing" does not end there. A classy lady sits for a long time near her grave and endlessly recalls the same eavesdropped conversation between two girls ... Olya chatted with her friend at a big break and mentioned one book from her father’s library. It talked about how a woman should be. First of all, with large black, boiling resin, eyes, with thick eyelashes, a delicate blush, longer than usual with hands, a thin camp ... But the main thing - the woman should have been with easy breathing. Olga understood literally - she sighed and listened to her breathing, the expression "easy breathing" all reflects the essence of her soul, longing for life, striving for its fullness and alluring infinity. However, “easy breathing” (analysis of the story of the same name comes to an end) cannot be eternal. Like everything worldly, like the life of any person and like the life of Olya Meshcherskaya, it sooner or later disappears, dissipates, possibly becoming a part of this world, a cold spring wind or a lead sky.
What can be said in conclusion about the story “Easy breathing”, the analysis of which was carried out above? Written in 1916, long before the publication of the collection “Dark Alleys”, the novel “Easy Breath” can be called without exaggeration one of the pearls of I. Bunin's work.